Arthur sat comfortably in an overstuffed armchair in a cosy corner of a book-selling coffee shop. He had several books strewn over his table, but they weren’t of much interest to him. A young barista-come-librarian had offered them to him in the hopes of making a sale. He had recognised Arthur from his little photo that always headed his articles, and had promptly given him several Tom Clancy novels. Arthur didn’t care for their government conspiracies, especially not when one was playing out in front of him.
The new laptop displayed the files in gorgeous colour, effortlessly accessing the little USB device. Normally he would copy the files to the hard drive, but he didn’t feel comfortable with moving these files around. The files! Never in his wildest dreams could he have hoped for them, not even in the one with the elephant eating his colleagues.
That had been a good dream. He could now face Monday mornings with a small knowing smile that tended to unnerve even the tallest poppy.
He had now closed the first folder, after having rifled through various psychology reports and recommendations. They warranted further investigation, but Arthur was keen to find something juicy, something that could potentially provide indisputable evidence. He had to keep to a deadline, whoever had given him this information wanted it to be released to the public by tomorrow, which was easier said than done. If he wanted the general public on his side, he needed something sensational. Today’s common man was easier to drag on side with a light show, rather than hard evidence.
Another folder opened, and Arthur edged forward on his seat. It now seemed that he had found both, in one neat little package. His media player opened up, and began to play.
'You think you are going to fight us tied to that chair?’
'No. I was going to get out of the chair first.’
‘And how do you plan to do that?'
‘Well I was thinking like this.’
Arthur sat back, one hand holding his face while the other gripped the arm of his chair. He winced as the teenager managed to completely decimate thugs that seemed to have him held hostage. The teen managed to break himself free from the chair that he was tied to, and then promptly smash everyone senseless with his bare hands.
‘Did you get all that? You can come and get me now, I'm getting bored with this scenery.’
The video finished as the teen- no, the agent- looked into the camera and presumably switched it off.
He knew that face. The teen was one of the ‘flat mates’ that was in the photo with Liam. A psychology report, complete with attached photos, told him that the teen’s name was just ‘Bradley,’ and that he was an astonishing sixteen years old. Amazing, all he needed now was to have the psychology reports verified as standard ASIO or ASIS material, and he would have a cornerstone for his exposé. There was more there, so much more, but he needed a team to back him up. If he was to get this done, he needed all the help he could get.
He finally found what he was looking for. A quick browse instantly caused his stomach to churn with anticipation, while his heart rate tripled from adrenaline. He saved his notes and quickly snapped his laptop shut, tossing a twenty at the young waiter before rushing out of the shop and to his car.
Twenty minutes later and he had called in a few favours over his phone and was parked back in his specially named parking space. Three people were lounging around the entrance to the building, laughing and chatting amongst themselves. As Arthur approached, the conversation died out, and they all grinned and looked at him expectantly. One of them, a tall gangly man in his early 20’s, gave a mock salute.
‘’s up my brutha from the same mutha?’ He said, grinning even the more wide. ‘Mum’s going to absolutely kill you when she finds out that you dragged me out of uni for one of your escapades.’
Arthur scratched the back of his head nervously. He had forgotten about Mum.
‘Er. Well…the way I see it is that she needn’t find out.’ Something clicked inside his head. ‘Hey! Wait a minute! You, David-me-boy, aren’t even at uni. You finished exams last week!’
David ruffled his older brother’s hair. ‘Yeah I know. I just like seeing your face ashen whenever I mention bringing Mum into the equation. So what’s the big story that required me to carpool and break several laws to get here?’
Arthur’s face became serious as he spoke, ‘I’ll tell you once we’re in the conference room. Jamie had it booked already, but she’s kindly obliged and allowed me to have it for the day.’
‘You keep forgetting, Arthur, that I have no idea who you’re talking about.’
Arthur shrugged and stepped towards the door, nodding to the other two twenty-somethings as he walked past, ‘Chris, Jeff.’
All three shuffled together and followed in his wake. Chris and Jeff were good mates of David’s, and they were self-proclaimed experts in their own fields. David had followed in his brother’s footsteps and was in his third and final year of his journalism bachelor. He was just as unorthodox as his brother, and had managed to achieve the same marks as his elder. Jeff was doing a double degree in business and journalism in preparation to take over his father’s media empire. With his scruffy appearance and down to earth attitude, he wasn’t easy to place as the offspring of a billion-dollar man. Chris was also in his third year, with one to go, of his generic I.T. course. Like most of his classmates, he was talented with a keyboard, but kept quiet about his online activities. While others bragged about how they managed to hack into the campus computers and change the desktop backgrounds of every machine on campus, Chris spent his time trawling the internet, finding and selling information for clients that were quite happy to pay cash into an off-shore account. Naturally the government had contacted him and he had been through the courts twice on industrial espionage charges, but in both cases the charges had to be dropped as all evidence mysteriously disappeared. In both cases Chris had sued for damages on the grounds of defamation, and had won both cases.
Arthur had called in quite an arsenal. This was only the tip of it, however. Three of his friends from university were also waiting in the conference room. All three of them now worked for separate parts of the media industry, and were heavy hitters in their own right. Arthur smiled to himself, remembering their humble beginnings.
Several heads were popping up out of cubicles as they marched through the newsroom. Questions that would have been asked of the group, were simply deterred by the sheer level of grim determination that seemed to halo Arthur as he made his way to the conference room. He opened the heavy oak doors and ushered the others in, closing the doors behind him. Instantly the room was silent as the brilliantly soundproofed walls prevented the outside world from coming in. As a final precaution, Arthur flicked the small lock on the door handle.
At the tiny click, a sudden new hush descended on the group, an almost claustrophobic atmosphere took over the room.
Arthur calmly paced his way to the front, placing his laptop on the podium and plugged the overhead projector into the appropriate port on the back. He then opened up the media player and prepared the appropriate movies. Satisfied, he looked up from his laptop at his captivated audience and appraised them in the eerie half-light of the conference room.
‘Sarah, Brett, Kenny. Thank you for coming. I know you don’t work for this paper, and it was a huge risk for your careers to come here, but this news story needs to be broken simultaneously. If the government even catches a sniff of what I have here, we could be locked away for the next fifty years. Of course, we know we belong to a first world country and of course that would never happen, but with these new anti-terror laws, you never know.’ He smiled softly and adjusted the microphone in front of him.
‘If this were Hollywood, I would say to you now that you’re free to leave at any time, and that the door is right there for you to do so, but you all know that it is now locked.’ This caused a small ripple of laughter through the group. ‘Yes. Well, it may not be so funny after you see what I have to show you. This is the story of the year. Something that could potentially break the current government, something that could literally destroy the country, could potentially leave us with so many U.N. placed embargoes that we could end up permanently trapped in another era, just like Cuba.
‘I’m talking about blowing the lid well off the Griffin College incident. From the expression on your face Kenny, I know you’re remembering the role your video camera played in that piece of groundbreaking news. From rest of your expressions, I can tell you’re confused. First thing’s first, I, using Kenny’s camera, took that controversial footage of the terrorist attack on Griffin College. That was me. In fact, ever since then, I have been following that story, looking for more to support the allegations that our government, in alliance with the UK and USA, has been training child soldiers. Doing something that we have condemned third world countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, for years.
‘Before any of you comment, let me just show you this evidence that has been recently put in my hands. If we were lawyers, we wouldn’t be able to take this to court, but because we’re journalists, we can take this to the public. If enough people are asking questions, the government will be forced to give some answers. Before you even start thinking that I’ve been fed a hoax, just have a look at these…’
Arthur pressed play and stepped back, out of the way of the screen. He carefully studied the faces of the media moguls that sat before him. As every minute, every second, washed over them, Arthur could see their countenances become all the more grave. Some of the footage Arthur hadn’t seen before, but that didn’t bother him. What appeared to be mission footage began to play. Beside himself, Arthur sat down and leaned forward in anticipation. Numbers in the bottom corner informed him that the footage was from three years ago.
Jet plane, conversation, camouflaged airport, ambush, rocket fire. More conversation, sarcastic remarks. Angry retorts and the camera turned to face two young women, both armed to the teeth and decked out in camouflage. An hour passed and the grainy footage was starting to hurt his eyes, but so far no-one had left their seat. The footage was harrowing, there was no doubt that it was Liam’s camera they were looking through, and Arthur automatically recognised Rae from her photos.
Death…so much carnage and destruction. It was morbidly fascinating, no Hollywood budget could afford or produce this kind of movie without it coming to the attention of the general public. No doubt it was real. Arthur felt a wave of nausea rush through him again as his heart almost had palpitations. The sheer enormity of what he had now seemed to crush his spirit. The gunfire stopped blasting away through the speakers, allowing the low-quality sound to drop back from static.
Liam was now looking into a large room, and there was a lithe figure standing before him.
‘Sis…’ Liam breathed to himself, but the microphone picked it up.
Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur could see that the others were experiencing the same emotions as him. Chris had leaned forward and had his head in his hands, David had leaned forward to check on him, arm around his shoulders.
The camera’s angle skewed wildly as Liam seemingly charged his own sister. As the camera was on his chest, the fight was less spectacular than it would have been, but Arthur could feel every blow shake him, he sucked air through his teeth as he saw the blood on Liam’s leg.
‘fi-…dirt-…’ Static washed most of the words away, but it was easy to guess what she said.
They all saw the small pistol appear in her hands, but Kenny was the only one to say what they were all thinking as he shouted, ‘you filthy slut!’ at the screen. The camera view changed crazily as Liam presumably dodged the shots.
There was more conversation, more clear than the last, and Arthur tensed right up again. He honestly couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Thirteen huge explosions destroyed the quality of the sound again, shattering it into static again. Everyone in the conference hall sagged into their seats as they saw Jess, bloodied and broken, fall to the ground. They saw Liam’s hand come up and cover the camera. The screen blacked out and the media player re-appeared, switching to another clip.
Arthur shakily got to his feet and exited the program. There was not a doubt in his body that he looked as sick as he felt. He was almost choked for words, but he managed to spit them out on his third try.
‘What…what we just saw was through the eyes of a sixteen year old.’ He paused and opened Liam’s file from that year. ‘You all know the spiels used by Amnesty and World Vision when they explain the lives of child soldiers, so you aren’t going to hear them from me…I personally haven’t seen this particular film before, and it honestly scared me…we need to get the word out about this- and quick.’ The nausea came back again. ‘If our government is willing enough to send a sixteen year old into the jungle somewhere, to kill countless numbers of soldiers, and then kill his own sister, then we can safely assume that they will not think twice to shut us up if they find a small leak.
‘We need to burst this dam, and we need to do it before tomorrow.’
David looked at him with a haunted expression, but smiled slightly and began to clap. Shakily, the others joined in. Chris just stared at him, looking as though he was going to be sick.
‘Sarah. I need you to call in all of your favours, I need you to go straight to work, now. It’s now two in the afternoon, you have the news at four on network Seven. I know I always ragged you for taking a commercial job over one at the ABC, but I’m grateful now that you made that decision. You’re slightly more likely to get this on air at a station that isn’t owned by the government. I honestly don’t care when you put this on the air. Just put it on as fast as you can. Use only a small group of people. Hell, I don’t know. Just get it out there!’ He quickly pulled out the DVD he was burning and gave it to her. ‘Go. Go now.’
Sarah nodded and took it from him, looking incredibly flustered. She smiled slightly at him and gave him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek before running to the door. She calmed herself, focused, and left smiling, using her news persona as she left the room. Arthur nodded to David, and he stood up, locking the door.
Already Arthur had another DVD burning, and the drive was making a quick job of the relatively small files. In five minutes the entire gigabyte of information on the USB would be on the disc.
‘Brett, I want you to take this one to your newsroom at the Herald. Just dump it straight onto the common drive and get cracking. This information needs to be out tomorrow, at the latest.’
Brett stood up and strode briskly to the podium. He watched the computer carefully, anxious that it was taking so long. The minutes remaining looked like hours, the sudden urgency almost causing him to lose his cool. Arthur looked at his brother and his two friends. David looked at him from the door, his face radiating a like grim determination.
‘Chris, Jeff. I need you to dump this video on every news site you can, but not just news sites. Amnesty, Oxfam, the U.N. even. I want this everywhere. Tomorrow I want the world to be wondering what is happening in Australia, and what its allies have had to do with it.’
Jeff and Chris nodded. Chris pulled out a laptop of his own and switched it on, plugging in his dedicated wireless internet access device. It was one of the most expensive ones available, and quite rare among university students. The company he had a plan with provided him a 1.5Mbps connection, and charged him by the megabyte for it. Chris new that he would cry at his bill next month, but right now he didn’t care.
Brett grabbed the DVD and put it in his pocket, nodding to Arthur before he too left the room. Arthur unplugged the USB and tossed it to Chris, who caught it and plugged it in, in one smooth movement.
David and Kenny now looked at him expectantly.
‘So…what do you have for me, brutha?’ David said, smiling slightly.
‘You’re going to help me write one of the most incredible articles in the history of the Australian newspaper. You’ll start it while I go and call in my wild card with the Editor. He took the card before, in Singapore, so there isn’t a doubt in my mind that he’ll give me the benefit of the doubt here.’
‘Okay, wait.’ Kenny had stood up and raised his hands. ‘I can understand why you asked the others here, but I write articles for the business section in Courier-Mail, for heaven’s sake! I’m at home with numbers, not’-he waved a hand vaguely at the screen- ‘this! What can I do?’
Arthur smiled and opened the only file that he had copied to his computer. It was an Adobe one; about four hundred pages long and obviously converted straight from a hardcopy document, like a cheap electronic photocopy. Kenny had walked over and was now looking up at the screen with a small worried smile.
Complete with a ‘MOST SECRET’ and ‘CLASSIFIED’ stamp, the first page of the document was quite impressive. There was a crest on the front, five arrows tied by a ribbon, with ‘SYF’ above it and ‘PAEDAGOGUS’ beneath.
Kenny chuckled, good humour returning. He read and re-read the title of the document. He honestly couldn’t believe that he was reading, it was like the gold at the end of a financial rainbow.
‘So…’ Kenny said, turning to Arthur. ‘I’m guessing this document is going to tell me exactly what happened to that $400 million that the Australian defence force apparently misplaced?’
Arthur smiled knowingly and walked over to Kenny, standing directly beneath the title.
‘I’m guessing that it’s going to tell you what happened to that money, right down to the nearest cent, and then some more. Namely what any other country has donated, or invested.’
Above the two of them, the words ‘SYF BUDGET REVIEW 1995-2005’ stood out defiantly against their white background.
